See also:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/6256173/Mahmou
d-Ahmadinejad-revealed-to-have-Jewish-past.html
Which one is it?
I started liking the guy (as I'm supposed to since he's "Jewish") and
now he's a "proud Shia"?
What a dilemma!! I need some guidance here, guys!
Am I to hate him now? (OK, not hate, because hate is bad, according to
Abe Foxman, dmreed and others!)
Let's just say that if he's a proud Shia AND he makes "vitriolic attacks
on the Jewish world", then he's a bad man.
Naturally, we should get rid of bad people in high places who make
"vitriolic attacks on the Jewish world" by blowing up their countries
and putting in nice Holocaustians in their place.
That way, everyone will be tolerant and love each other forever.
Am I on the right track?
I want to learn to "think for myself", so I can have you all agree with
me!
Ø
Big hugs and smoochies for everyone!
--------------------
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/05/mahmoud-ahmadinejad-
jewish-family
Ahmadinejad has no Jewish roots
Rumours that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's family converted to Islam from
Judaism are false. In fact, they are proud Shias o Meir
Javedanfar
o guardian.co.uk, Monday 5 October 2009 11.14 BST
In June 2005, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's meteoric rise from mayor of Tehran
to president of one of the most influential countries in the Middle East
took everyone by surprise. One of the main reasons for the astonishment
was that so little was known about him.
One recently published claim about his background comes from an article
in the Daily Telegraph. Entitled "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad revealed to have
Jewish past", it claims that his family converted to Islam after his
birth. The claim is based on a number of arguments, a key one being that
his previous surname was Sabourjian which "derives from weaver of the
sabour, the name for the Jewish tallit shawl in Persia".
Professor David Yeroshalmi, author of The Jews of Iran in the 19th
century and an expert on Iranian Jewish communities, disputes the
validity of this argument. "There is no such meaning for the word
'sabour' in any of the Persian Jewish dialects, nor does it mean Jewish
prayer shawl in Persian. Also, the name Sabourjian is not a well-known
Jewish name," he stated in a recent interview. In fact, Iranian Jews use
the Hebrew word "tzitzit" to describe the Jewish prayer shawl.
Yeroshalmi, a scholar at Tel Aviv University's Center for Iranian
Studies, also went on to dispute the article's findings that the "-
jian" ending to the name specifically showed the family had been
practising Jews. "This ending is in no way sufficient to judge whether
someone has a Jewish background. Many Muslim surnames have the same
ending," he stated.
Upon closer inspection, a completely different interpretation of
"Sabourjian" emerges. According to Robert Tait, a Guardian correspondent
who travelled to Ahmadinejad's native village in 2005, the name "derives
from thread painter - sabor in Farsi - a once common and humble
occupation in the carpet industry in Semnan province, where Aradan is
situated". This is confirmed by Kasra Naji, who also wrote a biography
of Ahmadinejad and met his family in his native village. Carpet weaving
or colouring carpet threads are not professions associated with Jews in
Iran.
According to both Naji and Tait, Ahmadinejad's father Ahmad was in fact
a religious Shia, who taught the Quran before and after Ahmadinejad's
birth and their move to Tehran. So religious was Ahmad Sabourjian that
he bought a house near a Hosseinieh, a religious club that he frequented
during the holy month of Moharram to mourn the martyrdom of Imam
Hossein.
Moreover, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's mother is a Seyyede. This is a title
given to women whose family are believed to be direct bloodline
descendants of Prophet Muhammad. Male members are given the title of
Seyyed, and include prominent figures such as Iran's supreme leader Ali
Khamenei. In Judaism, this is equivalent to the Cohens, who are direct
descendants of Aaron, the brother of Moses. One has to be born into a
Seyyed family: the title is never given to Muslims by birth, let alone
converts. This makes it impossible for Ahmadinejad's mother to have been
a Jew. In fact, she was so proud of her lineage that everyone in her
native village of Aradan referred to her by her Islamic title, Seyyede.
The reason that Ahmadinejad's father changed his surname has more to do
with the class struggle in Iran. When it became mandatory to adopt
surnames, many people from rural areas chose names that represented
their professions or that of their ancestors. This made them easily
identifiable as townfolk. In many cases they changed their surnames upon
moving to Tehran, in order to avoid snobbery and discrimination from
residents of the capital.
The Sabourjians were one of many such families. Their surname was
related to carpet-making, an industry that conjures up images of
sweatshops. They changed it to Ahmadinejad in order to help them fit in.
The new name was also chosen because it means from the race of Ahmad,
one of the names given to Muhammad.
According to Ahmadinejad's relatives the new name emphasised the
family's piety and their dedication to their religion and its founder.
This is something that the president and his relatives in Tehran and
Aradan have maintained to the present day. Not because they are trying
to deny their past, but because they are proud of it.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2009
